So says Rick Warren. OK, you’d expect Warren to use the word ‘purpose’, but the thrust of the article is the benefits of structuring a church around people’s gifts, rather than in trying to fit them into a predetermined structure. Makes sense to me. But it means there are some powerful institutional forces we need to resist in our denominations.
Dave Faulkner. Musings of an evangelical Methodist minister.
Big Circumstance 
At church this morning during our minister’s sermon I noticed a rather large huntsman spider on the wall quite close to where he was standing. I have no giftedness in ignoring large spiders in fairly close proximity.
Nobody else was as alarmed as I was – but I’m not taking it to a committee, it could be some time before said spider is removed!
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No, definitely not a spider committee, Pam!
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I like Rick’s style. Maybe it’s just what the ‘seat warming’ brigade need to hear to go do something 😉
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Yes, but not only the ‘seat warming’ brigade, Mary. Sometimes the problems come from those in positions of power who don’t want the established institutional structure to change, because it’s too comfortable, easy and predictable.
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Yes, but if the ‘Ground force’ rose up, wouldn’t the ‘structure’ have to change?
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Or the ‘structure’ will not be willing or able to contain the grass roots revolution, Mary, and the latter will become a new and separate entity.
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I have known seveal UM churches, including the The Church of the Resuerrection (15,000 members) in Kansas City that school members in what the “Spiritual Gifts” are, how they function in a healthy church, identifying those gifts in themselves, and deploying people for service within the congregation. Several years ago Methodist Temple in Evansville IN incorporated a Spiritual Gifts seminar into new member classes, plugging people into an appropriate ministry before they joined the church. I think several of our Mega churches follow this practice. It also helped the church we now attend literally rise from the ashes and become vibrant.
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That’s wonderful to hear, Elaine. As well as the danger of fitting people into a prepackaged shape of church (i.e., the requirements of the institution), there is another danger for the large churches, that they simply attract spectators. To me it seems vital that mega-churches take this kind of approach seriously.
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Here is another congregation, Ginghamsburg Ohio UMC, that built Gifts Identification into their DNA
http://ginghamsburg.org/
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Thanks again, Elaine, I think a minuster friend of mine has been out to visit Ginghamsburg.
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